Conclusion

This chapter returns to the matter of participatory process as aesthetic work and aesthetic experience. It draws on Ellen Dissanayake’s ethological approach to art-making, to propose that participation ‘makes special’ everyday behaviour, while looking to Jacques Rancière’s more stringent definition of the aesthetic, to highlight its potential for ambiguous and paradoxical outcomes, beyond simple instrumentalisation. The chapter concludes with a new section added for this second edition, reflecting on how participation’s potential to estrange us from ourselves may be especially relevant to a rapidly changing technological, ecological, and political context.